


Gin and Apple

by Jessa



Series: One-shots and Drabbles [8]
Category: Reylo - Fandom, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, reylo au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-11
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-08-22 00:09:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16586945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jessa/pseuds/Jessa
Summary: In response to the “Dark” challenge set by @reylo-week-2018.Also inspired by the lyrics to ‘Autoluminescent’ by Roland S Howard. I saw him play this song at The Tote in Melbourne not that long before he died of liver cirrhosis in 2009. Amazing til the end. I still love this song so much and these days it makes me think of Ben Solo every time I hear it.





	Gin and Apple

_“What?!”_  Rose yells.

 _“I’m gonna go get another drink! Do you want one?!”_  Rey yells back, deaf from the noise of the music. 

 _“I’m good!”_  Rose yells back and gives Rey a double thumbs up.

 _“Oh! You do want one?!”_  Rey yells, confused by the double thumbs up.

 _“What?!”_  Rose yells again.

Rey frowns and shakes her head, laughing.

_“Forget it! I’ll be back soon!”_

Rey really loves this guy’s music, and she had  _really_  wanted to go with Rose right to the front of the crowd to see him play up close tonight. They’d both heard through the grapevine that Roland S Howard had lived a pretty hard and fast life, and that he wasn’t that well right now. This might be the last chance they had to ever see him play. 

But the chain on Rose’s bike had come off on their way up Smith Street and they’d lost about a half an hour while Rey had fixed it for her. By the time they’d finally arrived at The Tote the place was jam packed and they weren’t even sure there’d still be any tickets left at the door.

They’d been lucky though, and once inside the venue they’d squeezed in through the crowd as far as they possibly could. 

But being close to the stage had also meant being not quite central to it, and Rose had decided to stop just in front of the left amp stack. Rey hadn’t really cared at the time but now she was beginning to realize that in the morning her tinnitus would be just that little bit worse.

 _It’s worth it for Roly,_  Rey thinks, as she ducks through the last of the crowd and spies the bar at the back.

Relieved to feel cool air around her body in this part of the band room, where the crowd is much thinner - full of 30-somethings whose tinnitus was probably almost as bad as hers and who appreciated personal space - Rey sighs and smiles as she hears the sexy thrum of the first bars of  _‘Undone’_ while she fumbles in her tan leather shoulder bag for her debit card.

“A gin and apple, please,” she says to the woman behind the bar.

“And  _apple?_ ”

The voice is deep and male.

 _Here we go,_  Rey thinks.

“Yeah,  _apple,_ ” Rey snarls out of the corner of her mouth, without looking to see who the snarky remark has come from. She doesn’t care. She  _isn’t_  here to pick up. She’s here to watch Roly.

“You want lemon or lime with that?” the bartender asks, also ignoring the source of the voice.

“Lime, please.”

Rey taps her card to pay and then carries her drink out the side door and into the dark courtyard. This place was often crowded but it was always empty whenever bands were on in the adjoining room.

Rey holds the black straw between her finger and thumb and takes a small sip, enjoying the clean flavor of the apple juice. She takes a second sip and then begins to smoosh the lime with the end of her straw against the cubes of ice at the bottom of her glass, muddling it. 

Rey enjoys the way this intensifies the tang of the lime, as well as gives her something to do with her hands. Shoving the end of the straw deep into the squashed lime wedge, she takes a third sip and then tilts her head up to the night sky, enjoying the feeling of the alcohol as it starts to spread through her body, warming her core and loosening her limbs.

Away from the bright gels of the band room lights, the dark sky seems now even darker. A black void. She hears the slow, hypnotizing chords of  _‘Autoluminecent’_  begin. 

 _Perfect_ , Rey thinks, as she gazes up at the endless void above her.  _The perfect song for darkness._

“Excuse me, please.”

Lost in the song - and the dark - Rey jumps, almost dropping her drink.

“I’m sorry,” he says.

 _Holy shit_ , Rey thinks, recognising the voice now as the one she’d heard inside at the bar, ridiculing her choice of drink.

Rey feels her heart flutter and then her stomach sink.

 _Damnit,_  she thinks.  _Why are the hot ones always jerks?_

And he  _is_  hot. But his hotness is definitely understated, Rey thinks, as her eyes can’t help but rake him over. 

Rey notices his height first, and his slightly awkward stance as though he, too, is unsure of what to do with most of his limbs for most of the time. She has to hide a smile at this thought. And then everything else about him is dark. Dark clothes, dark eyes and dark hair, which is slightly untidy at the ends and hiding his ears. But his skin is pale and his lips look pink and soft…

Rey squirms uncomfortably, averts her eyes and moves to take another sip of her drink. A  _big_  one. But as she does, she notices what he’s holding.

 _Fuck_ , Rey thinks. 

“I think I may have offended you earlier,” he says softly. “And I’m sorry. I’m sure you think I’m just being a creep, but I did want you to know. And, I hope you’ll accept this as an apology.”

He holds out one of the drinks to Rey. 

“Please.”

She purses her lips.

“And what are you gonna do with  _that_  one?” she asks wryly, already knowing the answer but not yet how she feels about it.

He smiles, and at this Rey just about collapses.

_Fuck, he’s beautiful._

“I’ve never had gin and apple,” he says.

“It’s good for you,” she says.

“Yeah, okay,” he says, as the smile broadens across his face. “Keep telling yourself that.”

But he takes a small sip, and then another.

“So, are you here with someone?” he asks softly, taking a third drink now.

“Yeah, my friend,” Rey replies, relaxing somewhat now as she finishes her gin and sets the glass down on the table nearby. 

“She’s still in there. I just needed some air.”

“So, are you a fan? Or did you just get dragged along?”

“Oh no, I like his stuff,” Rey replies, now taking a sip of the gin he bought her. 

And she pauses momentarily, as the last verse of the song begins to spill from the band room behind them.

“This song is probably my favorite,” she says, softly. “I like the darkness in it.”

“Yeah,” he says, taking another drink from his own glass. “I like it too.”

Removing the straw, he sculls the rest of his gin and places the drained glass carefully on the table, next to Rey’s.

“Do you know what it’s about?” he asks.

Rey chews the end of her straw and crinkles her brow.

“Um… darkness?”

He smiles.

“Actually, this song is about light,” he says.

“The guy’s imagining himself as a comet. It’s a metaphor for love and what it feels like to burn for someone. Especially after coming back from something dark. Demons. Inner demons. So, I guess you’re right. Without the darkness in it, there wouldn’t really be a song.”

Rey blinks like a deer in headlights.  _Wow._

And gently, he steps toward her and softly takes her wrist in his hand as with the other he cradles her waist, pulling her in to him.

“Would you mind if I…?”

 _Nope_ , Rey thinks. 

She wouldn’t mind if he did that  _at all._


End file.
